Unclaimed Memories
by turquoisejellyfish42
Summary: The Mad Hatter has not questioned his existence in Wonderland. So when a young girl by the name of Alice Liddell stumbles, uninvited, to his perpetual tea party, Hatter begins to oppugn the truth of his monotonous life and to doubt his own past. He will discover shocking truths about his previous life and learn more about himself than he had even dreamed of knowing.
1. Prologue pt 1: Down

Alice was falling. Her sky blue skirt billowed around her knees as she tumbled, grasping for something, anything. Nothing. The young girl was surrounded by smooth walls of impenetrable dark brown soil. Nothing stuck out. No roots, no crumbling ledges of dirt. The hole was wide, perhaps three meters in diameter. Things fell past Alice at varying directions and velocities. Several clocks, books, and even a grand piano! Alice managed to grab one of the books, which was titled _Several Ways of Taming Your Very Own Gillywobble_.

_What a very odd-sounding book_, thought Alice as she released it into the abyss. She was a very articulate young girl, to be sure, but one would never know it if one met her on the street. She looked like a perfectly average, normal child. However, Alice was quite bright, although no one, not even herself, had yet figured that out.

Meanwhile, Alice kept falling for what was a very long time, and yet she still fell...

Down...

Down...

Down...


	2. Prologue pt 2: Up-and-Over

The house on the Up-and-Over was very crooked. But it had always been like that. Its residents had no reason to worry. Why would they? It had been like that for over 400 years, so what, they surmised, would make it fall down now? The house on the Up-and-Over was five stories tall, built of soggy dark Maggotweed wood, and had four full-time tenants.

One was a little old mouse that suffered from something like narcolepsy. Another was the March Hare. He rarely left his room, but when he did, he was always in an irritable mood. Yet another was Cheshire. He came and went as he pleased, drifting in and out through walls that leaned dangerously to the left, and never bothering with the staircases that led you back to where you started.

The last occupant was the Hatter. He was known for his moods, and his eyes were a rather alarming shade of violet, in contrast to his shaggy black hair. His skin was as pale as a dead man's, and almost as cold. Even his roommates found the Hatter a somewhat enigmatic fellow.

* * *

One afternoon in late June, (or it could have been February; one was never quite sure in Wonderland) just as the sun was casting a golden glow over the Sea of a Million Faces and the Doll-Houseflies were tucking themselves into doll-sized beds, (just then, no later) a very tired, very scared Alice came stumbling into the clearing on the Up-and-Over, silhouetted by the setting sun.


	3. Where Am I?

The Up-and-Over was a large cliff that curled under itself like the tippity-top of a gob of whipped cream. Because of this, one could only approach the house on the Up-and-Over from two directions: south and west.

Now, on the eastern side of the house, the March Hare had, over the years, built something resembling a long, very large shelf that stuck out a ways from the grey-green checkerboard grass of the Up-and-Over. On that shelf was a long, white (and rather rickety, I daresay) dining table upon which were strewn, all higgledy-piggledy, the remnants of a rather callithumpian tea party. There were broken teacups, half-eaten macarons, and several strange stains on the floral tablecloth from God-knows-what.

Because the occupants of the house on the Up-and-Over were, as always, sitting at the table participating in tomfoolery, (except for the Dormouse, who was sleeping under an overturned teacup, her tail sticking out through the chip in the rim) they could not have seen Alice approaching. Thus, as she came round the obtuse northwest corner of the house on the Up-and-Over, the Hatter stood and let loose a mouthful of harsh-sounding blatherskite, for the young girl seemed so out of place and pathetic against the darkened sky. Her dishwater-blonde hair was a knotted mess and the hem of her skirt was black with mud.

"'Er eyes kind of look like yers, dint they, 'atter?" the Hare said with a thick Scottish accent.

"No. Her eyes are blue," said the Hatter, "whereas mine are a rather dashing shade of purple." He ducked just in time as a saucer whizzed over his head and looked reproachfully at the Hare.

"No, I meant the darkness around them, 'atter," he said with a saccharinely apologetic smile during which his oversized yellowing teeth were exposed. He quickly closed his lips. "I mean, yer eyes are... well, they're... It's like ye rubbed some black smudgy stuff below yer eyes."

"No, it's not! My eyes are beautiful, and don't you forget it, Mr. March Hare! I will have you know..."

All this time, Alice had been standing in the shadows, watching. Cheshire floated over to her. "My cohabiters are awfully testy, as you have probably guessed," he said in his low, slow voice, his grey fur fading in and out of transparency as his lavender stripes glowed with a steady, throbbing beat. His eyes were black, but somehow still radiated light, and his teeth were white and very pointy when he smiled, (which he did quite a lot) his grin stretching literally from ear to ear.

"Where am I?" Alice spoke in a hushed, quavering voice.

"You are on the Up-and-Over, my dear." Cheshire disappeared in a puff of lavender, sparkly smoke and reappeared a second later behind Alice with an armchair. He motioned for her to sit. "Let me show you," he breathed and tapped the chair with a claw. White, feathery wings sprouted from the back of the seat and, as soon as Alice folded herself frailly into it, it took off, Cheshire following, to show Alice the splendor (Alas, from a bird's-eye view!) of Wonderland.


	4. The Middle-ish Story

_Author's Note: Thank all of you for reading my story! I'm so appreciative of those of you that are leaving comments, and giving feedback. Again, thanks! Oh yeah, and flibbertigibbety is a real word. ;-) -Turquoise_

* * *

"As you can see," said the Hatter, "my friend the Cheshire Cat is rather flibbertigibbety." He was referring to a few moments earlier, when they had gotten back from the aerial tour of Wonderland. Cheshire had disappeared in a puff of sweet-smelling smoke, leaving Alice sitting awkwardly in a faded blue armchair that was hovering precisely four inches off of the ground. Hatter had paused arguing with the Hare just long enough to lead Alice up to the third floor (or "the middle-ish story", as the Hatter called it, for one was never sure what level one was on in the house on the Up-and-Over) and begin to fill the tin washtub sitting cattywampus in the corner of the bathroom. This particular snuggery was very... different. Whereas the other rooms in the house on the Up-and-Over had dark paneling and red-and-black checkered floor tiles, this bathroom had an unusual color scheme. The walls were hot pink, with abstract floral decals. The floor was painted to resemble the sunny sky, and, strangely, all of the metal in the room (yes, including the tub) was bright blue with green speckles. There also appeared to be no ceiling. The walls extended upward (and upward and upward) until they evanesced into swirling grey now and again, a tendril would snake its way down, only to burn up in the sun sluicing through the crooked window, which was shaped like a butterfly. A soft blue glow emanated from an empty, upside-down vase hanging from a chain that, like the walls, went up and up until it, too, dissipated into mist.

"Alice," said the Hatter, snapping her out of her curiosity-induced reverie.

"Yes?" she responded. Everyone here seemed to know her name without having to be told.

"Did you, perchance, follow a White Rabbit down a Rabbit Hole, only to discover you were in Wonderland?"

"Wonderland? Is that what this place is called?"

"Yes, dear Alice. However, did you follow Arthur?"

"Arthur? Do you mean the White Rabbit?"

"Yes. So you did?"

"Well... I did indeed follow the Rabbit. Why?"

"The fact is, Alice... He has been luring Alices down that hole for decades, working for the Red Queen. Alice- He might have killed you."


End file.
